Here at the Tree, we do culture on purpose. We don't let the loudest voice or the inertia of apathy determine who we are. We determine to be the people that we need to be to achieve what we are called to be. We choose to be the people of God to establish and extend the kingdom of God. These 7 cultural statements are the cornerstone of our church. Vision is nothing without culture: if you get where you mean to go by losing who you are, you have failed.

The Four Pillars of the Church

Our vision is to have a church in London that is full of the Word, full of the Spirit, full of the nations and full of love.

Our goal is to have a church with over 3000 people meeting every Sunday to celebrate the goodness of the Lord from 100 different nations, and to have 200 living churches meeting every week in houses across London and Essex.

Our national vision is that no one within the UK is ever more than 60 minutes drive from a Tree of Life Church.Our motto is: "A family church with a world vision" - we want everyone to feel like they are family and that they are welcome and loved, but we also want to be able to impact the nations of the world with anointing preaching, life changing missions work and practical help and compassion.

We want to take the time to explain our vision. Habukkuk 2.2 says to write the vision and make it plain, so that people can run with it. We want to present our vision in a way that you can run with it and enjoy it.

Full of the Word

To be a church full of the Word means that everything we do is based on God's Word. If God's Word contradicts our circumstances we believe God's Word. We do not believe our human reason or emotions are above God's Word, but that they are subject to God's Word. We believe that the moment you are born again you are a new creation, free from sin, sickness, poverty and shame and that God's will for your life is righteousness, health, wealth and glory. We believe that God is for you not against you and that sin cannot abound so much that God's grace does not abound more.

We believe that on the cross, Jesus completely reversed the curse and redeemed us from it. Consequently by believing God's Word we can enjoy freedom from the curse and enjoy the blessings of God which are already ours.

To be a church full of the Word, the leadership will ensure three things:

That in every Celebration Church meeting the Word of God will be preaching with boldness and power

That for one month every year, the preaching and teaching in the Celebration Church will be on the integrity and importance of God's Word and faith in the Word

That in all the Living Churches we study the Word using courses and curricula that we know are based fully on God's Word.

To be a church full of the Word, you can help by:

Listening to the Celebration Church messages, not just in church but using this website

By spending time on a regular, consistent basis reading and studying and meditating God's Word

Full of the Spirit

It is our view that every Christian can and should be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5.18), and all can and should speak with tongues (Acts 2.4). But, as the Pentecostals used to say: speaking with tongues is the initial evidence of being filled with the Spirit. Who wants to be an initial? Don't you want the fulness?

Our vision is for a church where every Christian is full and animated by the Holy Spirit. They can operate in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit wills, they are led by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit and sealed by the Spirit. They know Him as a person so well that their life is an adventure with Him and His wonderful self.

We do not accept that the ministrations of the Holy Spirit are just for the clergy, or even just for the church meeting: they are for all Christians at all times. We will teach and train how people how to know Him and how to relate to Him in a dynamic life-changing manner.

To ensure we are a church full of the Spirit, the leadership of the church are doing the following:

Ensuring that within the Living Churches people have the opportunity to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and learn about how to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit

Ensuring that for one month every year the theme of the Celebration Churches is on the filling and power of the Holy Spirit and how to flow in that power.

Ensuring that the use of the gifts in the church is both encouraged and shepherded with kindness and wisdom.

To ensure we are a church full of the Spirit, you can help by:

Ensuring you are baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, and seeking wisdom from the church leadership if you are not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Attending a Living Church and operating in the gifts in the Living Church to encourage and edify the Living Church

Full of the Nations

London is the most international city on planet Earth. It is a privilege that God has asked us to plant a church in London. It is our desire and our goal that Tree of Life Church reflect both London and Heaven and be a truly multi-ethnic church - not just a church with people of different ethnic groups, but a church where those people can enhance and teach each other and learn from each other's culture's strengths and attributes. We want a true mingling of cultures without any loss to any culture.

Jesus said that His house shall be a house of prayer for all nations. The word nations in the original Greek is ethnos. It is where we get our English word "ethnic" from. If your church does not have people from all over the world praying together, it is not a church Jesus built! We are taking steps to ensure that our church is welcoming to all people and releases all people into fulfilling their destiny in Christ.

To ensure that we build a church full of the nations, the leadership will:

Never set up Living Churches on ethnic groupings

Regularly have events that celebrate our diversity and teach on God's view of the nations and nationality on a consistent basis.

To ensure that we build a church full of the nations, you can help by:

Welcoming and actively learning about the different cultures in the church meetings

Share your culture and background and be secure in your background

Full of Love

Having been in many large conferences and churches as a spectator, it is our desire that no-one comes to church as a spectator. In a football game, there are only 11 people on the pitch and thousands of people who are simply paying their money and attending. Unfortunately, there are many churches which are just the same - except it might be a bit difficult finding a whole 11 people doing the stuff!

We want every Christian to have experience of leading others into the new birth, into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, into water baptism. We want every Christian to be able to have had times they have laid hands on the sick and seen them recover, we want every Christian to see church as a kind and loving family, the best place on earth to be, the place where they are recognised and valued. Being a church full of love cannot happen in the traditional church model - everyone comes, sits down for a couple of hours, enjoys the show and goes off without building the kind of deep relationships where you can love and show love, use the gifts of the Spirit, be missed when you are gone and be part of a group that encourages and edifies one another.

The way to ensure this happens is through Living Churches (what some churches might call "cell groups"). Living Churches are groups of between 4 and 15 people who meet in a house or other venue for the purpose of helping each other become better Christians. This means they will worship together, pray for each other, use the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit, serve each other in love and talk about how to make the sermon on Sunday part of their every day life. In Tree of Life Church, we call our cells "Living Churches" because we want to emphasize that having a house meeting is as much church as what we do on Sunday.

For more information on the value of Living Churches, have a look through some of these articles.

We currently have five Living Churches, One in Dagenham, one in Barking, one in Ilford and one in East Ham. In addition, we have a living church called XCEL which is for people aged between 11 and 25(ish).

As our church grows this website will have lists of all current Living Churches and email contacts for all the Living Church Leaders. It will also include many accounts of how people are healed, set free from sinful habits, and had their lives changed for the better through these wonderful living church.

Train and develop great Living Church Leaders who run groups that truly show the love of God

Ensure that you can find a Living Church near you that welcomes you as you are

Teach on how to release the love of God that is inside us on a regular basis within the Celebration Church.

To be a church full of love, you can help by:

Becoming part of a Living Church, committing yourself to being a part of the group and going to give as well as going to get

Encouraging your leaders, the people around you and those who need a bit of extra TLC to become all they can be in Christ.

Tree of Life Church Vision Manual

Our vision manual has been a blessing to a number of people who are not even part of this church. Its clear presentation of basic theology that every Christian should know combined with an outline of what God expects from everyone in a local church have made this book useful in a far further range than just our local church. Now this book is available for anyone to buy.